Last chance
by enelle1989
Summary: Uncharted 4 spoilers - This is how I imagine the missing scenes between the moments in which Elena discovers Nate's deception on Madagascar and finds him in Libertalia.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, everything belongs to Naghty Dog, Sony and other respective owners.  
I am not an English-speaker, so if there are mistakes, forgive me, I am doing my best to avoid them.

* * *

She closed the door behind her. She was greeted by a complete darkness. Not turning on the lights she reached out to the left side and entered the code to disarm the antiburglary alarm. The device answered with triple beep, not classifying her as an intruder. But for the first time ever she didn't feel like at _home_.

Elena put her travel bag on the ground and leaned against the door, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. After a few moments she saw the outline of the stairs, closets and a hallway leading to the living room. The house was bleakly quiet. She took off her jacket and hung it on a peg on the left side of the door, moving to the side a few of her husband's outerwear that already hanged there. When she moved them to the side, well known smell of his perfume spread in the air.

She slid her sneakers and gently kicked them towards other pairs of male and female shoes scattered around the seat. She was bone-tired – a dozen or so hours of flight from Madagascar were a burden for her. She definitely needed sleep. She directed her steps towards the stairs, climbing to the first floor and then walked straight to their bedroom.

She felt exhausted both mentally and physically. She was thinking during the whole flight, unable to rest even for an instant. Nonetheless, she stopped at the entrance to the bedroom, as if some invisible barrier prevented her from making further steps. She leaned against the door frame, looking inward with a sad, a little blankly glance.

The room was a slight disarray, as usual. On the dresser laid a few unfolded clothes, that she didn't set aside into the closet after packing-up her stuff to Madagascar. Livid moonlight and street lights fell into the room by half-obscured window blinds, illuminating their double bed. On its right side blinked the red screen of the electric alarm clock, indicating the time – 3:25; on the small table on the other side of the bed laid an open book, which Nate hadn't finished reading before he departed.

She took a deep breath. She closed the windows before her departure, and now there could be felt light stuffiness in the room, which perpetuated his _scent_. Although for the last few weeks she stayed alone in this room, suddenly his _presence_ was almost palpable – folds on the duvet and pillows on the left side of the bed, his book opened in the middle, opened doors to their dressing room, an opened bottle of his perfume... as if he had left just a few moments ago, and he was going to come back soon.

Memories of their shared moments in this room pierced through to her consciousness. As they both couldn't get away from their books until late at night. As after washing-up they were assorting their socks in pairs, sitting cross-legged on the floor; these attempts almost always ended in failure because of Nate's endless jokes, and then all the socks landed in one single drawer. As after her return from another long trip they laid across the bed, longing for each other, just hugging, saturating their senses with their presence. As he sometimes carried her in his arms to this room without breaking the kiss. As she was getting annoyed when he happened to fall asleep during the movie. As she waked up of an extremely realistic nightmare, and he, though still sleepy, enveloped her with his strong arms and cradled her peacefully until she wouldn't fall asleep again. As he was whispering in her ear that he loves her the most in the world. As she was trying on different clothes in the dressing room while he was siting bored to death on their bed, repeating time after time that she looks beautiful and _couldn't we just go finally?_ As during quarrels they glanced at each other from the opposite ends of the room, both guided by pride, but deep within wanting to reunite. As he enveloped her waist during their sleep, gently pulling her closer. As he fell asleep with a book on his chest and she put off on the bedside table, composing gentle kiss on his temple. As during lazy, summer mornings they spend hours lounging around in bed, letting warm rays of the rising sun stroke their bodies hidden under thin sheets. All these images danced before her eyes in the moonlight, like eternal spirits. She felt like if it weren't her memories. The idea of spending another lonely night in that bed made her shiver. The bed seemed as much dangerous as quicksand or swamp. This was too much. She could not cross the doorstep of this room.

She turned on her heel, went down the stairs again, and then directed to the living room. Along the way she caught a sight of his smiling face looking at her from their joint photographs. She instinctively ran away from that gaze, as if it was burning painful wounds in her body.

When she reached the couch she almost immediately fell on the pillows and pulled her legs high under her chin. Even here she could notice joyful, bright eyes belonging to a smiling, handsome man from the picture at the top of the bookcase. Nevertheless, she didn't see anything familiar in those eyes. A complete stranger was staring at her. She realized that even though she spent so many years with him, she didn't know him at all. She knew nothing about her husband.

She felt as if the walls of the room narrowed inward. She squeezed her eyes shut; tears flowed through her eyelids, soaking quickly into the rough fabric of the pillows. Shortly afterwards she fell in short, restless sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, everything belongs to Naghty Dog, Sony and other respective owners.  
I am not an English-speaker, so if there are mistakes, forgive me, I am doing my best to avoid them.

* * *

"Sully?" she asked surprised, looking out the front door and letting a cool, morning breeze inside the house. "What are you doing here?"

"Hello sweetheart" greeted her a gray-haired man. Victor Sullivan was standing on the porch of her house with a cigar in his hand, exhaling a cloud of white smoke. "I've dropped by to see how you're doing."

"Well…" she sighed, opening the door wider. "I've been better. Do you want to come in?"

"If you don't mind…" Sullivan replied a bit hesitantly, passing her in the doorway. Elena slammed the door behind him and immediately hurried towards the kitchen, wiping her eyes furtively. This gesture and the sight of reddened cheeks and shadows under her eyes didn't escape Sully's attention.

"Would you like something to drink?" a female voice from inside the house reached him after a second.

"I didn't have time to drink coffee yet" answered Sully, hanging his leather jacket on a peg, previously pushing aside a pile of Nate's overcoats. "So if you have some good one, then I wouldn't refuse."

He turned and walked towards the living room. Suddenly he noticed a row of three suitcases standing by the window. One of these was still open, filled with women's jewelry, shoes and books. Shelves in cabinets around the room were half empty. There was a huge pile of papers on the kitchen table, and on the back rest of the sofa hanged unfolded clothes.

"You're going somewhere?" he asked, pointing his cigar towards the suitcases. Elena didn't even turn to him, busy of percolating coffee. After a moment she launched the device and intense, energizing aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the room.

"Sort of" she answered after a few moments. "I'm going to my parents' place, to Colorado. Actually, it turned out well that you came. Do you have some time? You could wait a while, I would finish packing up and leave you my pair of keys; you could turn them over to Nate."

She was surprised that she was able to say out those words with so much calmness; her voice didn't even tremble. She began to move the dishes in the hanging cabinets in search of a saucer.

"Well..." Sully sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table and pushing away a pile of papers and empty, torn envelopes. "I must admit that I'd be surprised, if after that excess of his you didn't make such a decision."

Elena turned slightly towards Sullivan, watching him uncertainly for a moment, then smiled sadly.

"Now you're the one to surprise me, Sully" she said, placing a cup of coffee with sugar bowl in front of him and taking a seat on the opposite side of the table. "Actually my idea was that Nate sent you here to distract me from doing such a thing."

"Far from it, darlin'" Sully sighed, adding three full teaspoons of sugar to coffee. Elena watched that in horror; certainly it was not a healthy habit, just like smoking cigars. She also realized that Sully didn't denied for a moment that it was Nate who sent him here. "From the very beginning I knew that this whole enterprise is a bad idea. But back then I was convinced that you know about everything."

Elena leaned on her elbows, burying her face in hands and combing her hair, as if she tried to collect from her mind all concerns and sorrows. For a while both remained silent; the only sound was a quiet music flowing from the radio in the corridor.

"Sully..." Elena asked suddenly, without looking up. "Who is that Sam? Is he really Nate's brother? Where did he come from so suddenly? How is it possible that through all these years I didn't know about him?"

Sully sighed, taking a sip of the black drink.

"To tell the truth darlin', until recent weeks Nate himself was firmly convinced that he no longer have a brother" he said, putting down the cup. "I also didn't know much about Samuel. He did with me and the kid couple of businesses, but I couldn't get to know him better. About fifteen years ago, during their escape from prison in Panama, he had been shot by the guards right at Nate's sight. As it turned out, it wasn't a mortal shot, but at that moment Nate was convinced that he had lost him and... he left him in that prison, saving his own life."

Sullivan paused for a long moment, puffing on his cigar.

"He had a hard time going through that _death_. He couldn't recover for long. So when Sam suddenly had risen up from the dead, a tremendous sense of guilt and fear of losing him again awakened within Nate's mind."

Elena watched Sullivan, visibly shocked. After a moment she lowered her head, staring at an invisible point on the table.

"Nate never told me anything."

"That was a goddamn mistake. And I won't vicariously repair his mistakes" Sully said, taking another sip of coffee. "He will tell you the details of the story himself."

"It's probably a little too late for this, Sully..." Elena sighed sadly. She played with a jagged-edged envelope, rolling it between her fingers into thin roll. "I'm sick of these mysteries, and now I've had enough of his lies, I don't wanna live like this anymore. It's over."

"Darlin'…" Sullivan leaned towards her. "You have the right to feel…"

"Sully, stop it, don't try to appease me" Elena rose her voice, giving him a glare. "I did nothing to deserve such treatment. I'm tired of fighting for this marriage. I don't want to live from one mad upsurge of his to another. He doesn't even consider me as a fully-fledged part of his life and doesn't want to share his problems with me. He can only bullshit me! I'm not going to be a red herring between his "businesses" once again..."

"Elena" Sully interrupted her with firm voice. She lifted her eyes to him in surprise; for the first time he didn't call her _darlin'_ or _sweetheart_. "For God sake, you have no idea how much you're wrong when you say such things."

She shrugged and turned her head dismissively towards the kitchen's window. She began to tear the envelope into small pieces. Sullivan observed her for an instant and then continued.

"Since I met Nate, I only once saw him in state similar to the one he was in after the loss of brother, his last closest family member. Y'know when? In Nepal, when you were badly injured and unconscious for several days, and it wasn't even certain whether you will survive" he did a short break, as if he was remembering these events. "I think it's a little exaggerated reaction for a _red herring_ , isn't it?"

Elena turned her gaze to Sully.

"I don't want to fall into pathetic tone, so try to understand me correctly. You know that I treat Nate like a son, which I never had... Anyway, all these years I comprehended so this relationship with him" Sullivan sighed, then puffed his cigar and blew a cloud of gray smoke into the air. "This is certainly the most unruly son that one can imagine. Stubborn as a mule... damn talented mule, you have to give him that. I always tried to rescue his ass when he fell into trouble, advise him when he was making mistakes and support his choices. I don't remember the exact moment when it occurred to me that Nate has changed since you stepped into his life. Now I am sure, that despite the weaker body, you are much stronger than he is. You are his signpost. Try to understand..." he leaned towards Elena, snatching shreds of the envelope out of her fingers and squeezing her hands gently "…you will always handle yourself. But without you he will act like a blind man, with no long-range goal in life, beyond a handful of goddamn gold coins... in the pursuit of which he will someday crack his neck. And then his _glamorous_ life will be over. And nobody will remember him."

Her eyes welled up with tears. She swallowed, then patted friendly the back of Sully's hand. These words suddenly brought her comfort. Didn't cause sympathy for Nate, nor resulted in diminution of the degree of his guilt... but they lessened, in some small part, her anger and resentment on him.

"Why he didn't tell me, Sully?" she sighed softly. Sullivan looked at her with watchful eye.

"He should explain it to you by himself. Listen, darlin', I really don't intend to justify him or relieve him in any way. I am simply aware that sometimes people, even acting in good faith, behave incredibly, unbelievably stupid towards people whom they love the most" he answered, leaning back in his chair, puffing on a cigar. "I am also aware of one more thing: the reason that Nate gave you on Madagascar was probably ass taken, as indeed you said it at the time."

Elena smiled. She remembered Nate standing in the motel room, in clothes stained with dried mud, with this goofy look on his face, saying his pathetic and condescending _I wanted to protect you_. Yes, it certainly wasn't the real reason. It happened already, that he's been protecting her, but at the same time he didn't have to conceal anything. Her thoughts immediately reached Yemen, when Nate made her stay and flew to the desert alone to save Sullivan. As it turned out, due to this decision he most likely saved her from certain death; and all this without a single lie.

A few weeks ago, just like once before during their relationship, Nate lacked the courage to tell her that he embarks on a journey for treasure. Elena began to understand that Nate was afraid of something and it was his fear that forced him to make such a decision. But what was he afraid of...?

"Listen, sweetheart" Sullivan began again, snatching Elena out of her thoughts. He was swinging the rest of the coffee on the bottom of a cup. "Actually... I didn't tell you the real reason why I came to you today. You see... from dozen or so hours I haven't had any contact with them."

Elena looked up at Sully. She felt her heart slowing down.

"I'm starting to seriously worry that they have gotten themselves into some goddamn trouble again. I know more or less where they headed up to, I am departing right away... I wanted to ask if you wanna fly with me."

Elena kept her eyes on Sully, touching a wedding band on her finger. Even before Sully finished speaking, she had known her decision. If Nate was in danger she just had to help him. He was her husband… still. But deep within her heart matured the real reason for this decision. She wanted to give themselves the last chance for one honest conversation. She wanted to look into her husband's eyes and get the answer to her nagging questions; find out whether there is still a chance for them for a shared future.

"Well, I have huge experience in tracking him down" she sighed with a smile, rising abruptly from the table. "Wait a quarter, I will pack myself up, call my parents and we will be ready to go."

"That's my girl!" Sully praised her, then carried off a cup to the sink. For a moment he watched Elena bustling around the house, collecting single pieces of clothing and other trinkets to green bag. Within a few minutes she dug up all the equipment needed for such escapades from the depths of the house, as if they were prepared for regular use. She was focused and determined.

"I'll meet you outside" Sullivan said suddenly, directing his steps towards the corridor "I am sure Nate wouldn't hesitate to shoot me to death if I he had known that I'd been watching his wife packing her thongs and bras…"

"For God's sake, Sully! Everything stays in the family!" Elena winked, unable to stop laughing.

"Don't push your luck!" Sullivan shouted from the corridor, waving his hand. On his way to the front door he stopped for a moment in front of a huge wedding photo. He looked carefully at Nate, who glanced with a smile at his newly married wife standing beside him. That glance of his was so natural, as if Elena was always there, by his side. _This is really your last chance to make things right and start again, kid_ – Sullivan thought, grabbing his jacket and walking outside in the middle of the New Orleans' bustle. _Just try for once to not screw this up._


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, everything belongs to Naghty Dog, Sony and other respective owners.  
I am not an English-speaker, so if there are mistakes, forgive me, I am doing my best to avoid them.

* * *

Heat and dampness of the jungle burned her skin and air passages. She felt again that peculiar, slightly bitter smell of the primal forest, heard the screams of wild birds and the far sound of waterfalls. She has been driving along the bank of a high hill on slow speed between boulders and thickets. Whisked away swarms of insects with a hand, cursing the moment she left bug spray on Sully's plane.

Suddenly it seemed to her that she had heard something.

She stopped the car immediately and turned off the engine, listening intently. The air was filled with a flutter of wings of multicolored parrots and the noise of the wind blowing in the crowns of tall trees; she didn't recognize any sounds that may have come from human beings. Once she thought that she had misheard, sudden distant sound of gunfire and a thunder of powerful explosions reached her. She frowned and strained her hearing, trying to locate the source of the noise. After a few seconds and a quick glance at the compass she realized that until now she had been driving in the wrong direction – the sounds surely came from the north side of the old colony. She launched the radio.

"Come in, Sully" she said aloud to the device. "I can hear the thunder from the north. How it looks from your spot?"

A faint and understandable babble drew from the speaker. Elena took a deep breath.

"You're kindly asked to remove the cigar from your mouth when talking..."

"Yeah, sorry" answered her the voice from the speakers, this time much more clearly, slightly drowned out by the noise of aircraft engines. "…indeed, now I can see the smoke, Shoreline fired rockets, they're storming the colony, there's a hell of a mess. I think we have them, sweetheart."

"I'm heading this way. Over and out."

"Just be careful."

Elena shut down the device, turned the keys in the ignition and threw another look at the compass, then carefully turned back. After a few dozen meters she turned into the thicket, heading north. Drove for a few minutes continuously, breaking through the muddy gutter and a low bushes. As she approached the outer reaches of the colony, the bush grew less and less, and appeared a large number of overgrown by vegetation stone ruins. The sound of her car scared wild animals that bred in shelters provided by the remains of centuries-old buildings, no doubt once occupied by the colonists. Elena realized that she probably belongs to those few people on Earth who can actually look at this place after it had been forgotten for hundreds of years. She wondered why the colonists weren't here anymore; hence why did they leave since they'd created a paradise here? Suddenly the road finished on a small cliff, under which flowed a shallow, muddy river. She stopped the car and turned off the rowdy engine.

"Sully" she lifted the radio to her face. "I see more buildings, so I must be getting close."

Suddenly she heard the sound of the single shot. Elena heard it many times in her life and recognized, that it was a gun. But the silence that followed made it more ominous than the sound of all army's gunfire. The silence could only mean somebody's end... She waved away those bad thoughts, turned the engine on and slowly drove down from a cliff into the river. Before the car sank in the mud, she floored the pedal and slowly moved up the river, splashing mud and water on all sides.

A few dozen meters away, she finally discovered fresh tire tracks – a sign that Shoreline soldiers passed here before. From that moment driving a stolen car was risky; Shoreline couldn't be far away, and Elena could be easily spotted by the noise of the engine. After reaching next old ruins, she stopped the car behind the remains of a small watchtower. She took two pistols from the vehicle, the radio, and after checking in Sully, started the walk along the river.

After a few minutes she heard a second shot, and then the wind brought the distant echo... of someone's scream. She was sure it was a man's scream. That sound made her shiver, but she decided to not slowing down. She had to find Nate as quickly as possible.

The road was difficult and exhausting, Elena often fell into the mud or in the thickets, a few times had to slip from the high, muddy slope. She passed individual Shoreline soldiers on the way, before whom she hid in tall grass. She could feel trickles of sweat running down her back in the rising heat. Walked briskly, listening intensively for any sounds that might indicate Nate's position. It was an excruciating horror for her to realize, that time passed and she didn't hear any more significant sounds. She remembered, however, the direction from which came the sound of two mysterious gunshots and tried not to deviate from this course. The forest around her thickened and thinned, she crossed a few shallow rivers, here and there passed the remnants of buildings. It worried her that there were less and less of these – like if she has been leaving the colony behind. For a moment she even considered returning to the car, but the sounds of gunfire were the last sounds she heard – she had no other traces. Several quarters passed when Elena finally saw the light through the trees. She moved quickly in that direction.

After coming out of the thicket she looked around. She was on a shore of a vast flood waters area that came from one side to the high cliff. Elena pulled out a pair of binoculars – at the top of the cliff she saw colonists' buildings, behind which still hung the cloud of black smoke. There these noises had to come from… but the cliff was far too high for her to climb it.

"Shit!" she swore, biting her lip. She should have reached that cliff from the other side. Elena realized how much time she lost... She turned on a radio.

"Come in, Sully."

"Got them, darlin'?" she heard a familiar voice in the speaker. "Long time no word from you."

"Sorry" she sighed. "I went in the wrong direction, I'm a level below the cliff. Colony is positioned higher. I have to get back to the car and drive to it from the other side. Wasted a hell of a time..."

"And did you hear anything?"

"Only two single shots..." she paused, recalling in her head the sound of a distant scream, but she didn't mention it to Sully. She wasn't sure about that sound.

"Nothing new from my side either. But I will be still circulating in the area. If something happened, let me know. I'll also report to you any news."

"Very well. Over and out."

Before she could take a step back towards the thicket, she saw something in a glimpse of an eye, that immediately caught her attention.

A few dozen meters from where she stood, in the shallow coastal water, laid a long, dark object. At first glance it looked like a block... but it certainly _wasn't_ a block. It's shape was strange and unnatural. Elena started approaching slowly in the direction of the strange object with her eyes wide open, putting her hand on a gun. Moments later she suddenly quickened up her pace and started running… since she realized that she wasn't looking at the block… but a human.

 _Nate._

She reached him and fell to her knees beside him, full of the worst inklings. Nate didn't move; he was laying on his left side with outstretched arms, faced his back towards her.

"Oh my God..." Elena sighed, reaching her trembling hands towards him and shaking him lightly by his arm. His skin was alarmingly cool. "Nate...?"

As she slowly turned him on his back, she looked into his face. He was peaceful; his eyes were closed, mouth half-open, and on forehead above his right eyebrow he had a deep, bad wound. He was still slightly bleeding, staining the sand and water under his head in red. Like if he had been laying here for some time already… Elena got seized by almost panic terror, feeling a growing lump in her throat that interfered her breath.

"Hey, Nate!" she cried, patting him on his cheek. "Oh God no… Nate! Wake up, Nate!"

Drake, however, didn't react. Elena's heart galloped in terror, she had tears in her eyes. She leaned instantly forward and pressed her ear to his chest. After a few seconds, that seemed an eternity for her, she finally could feel on her cheek steady and calm beat of his heart.

"Oh, thank God...!" she breathed a sigh of relief, lifting her head from his chest and massaging gently the spot on its left side. She swallowed her tears, pulled the radio from her belt and lifted the device up.

"Sully! Sully! I found him! I found Nate!"

"Irreplaceable girl!" Sullivan answered her triumphally. "Where?"

"Beneath the cliff, he is unconscious and wounded..." she said, gently patting Nate on his wet hair. "Sully, we need to get him out of here."

"Damn, it's not going to be easy" Sullivan answered after a brief moment. At this moment Elena heard the roar of engines coming from above the cliff, and soon after she noticed a white silhouette of Sully's aircraft on a background of the blue sky. "I can't land here. You would have to go back to the shore. I'll seek the closest possible place to land. Meanwhile, try to gather him together."

"Sure. Talk to you soon!"

"Hey, Elena" Sully interrupted suddenly. Elena moved the device to the face once more.

"Yes?"

"Any trace of Sam?"

Elena swallowed and looked around. It was clear that Sam wasn't here and Nate has been lying here for uncertain amount of time – in water, unconscious, with a _hole_ in his head, without weapon... What could have happened here? She bit her lip.

"He's not here, Sully" she reported. "Don't land on the shore, we have to wait until Nate wakes up. Then we will look for Sam, right?"

She could hear a strange noise from the speaker, like if Sully was chuckling.

"As you command, darlin'" he said. "Good to know that some things do not change."

"See you then, Sully" she said to the microphone, turning off the device. Sully's words sparked in her an involuntary smile.

She leaned over Nate and slipped her hand under his back, while putting his other arm around her neck. Grasping him firmly this way, she leaned forward, raising Nate to a sitting position. His limp head rested on his chest and a few drops of blood fell from his forehead on his shirt and pants. Without letting him go, Elena rose herself to a kneeling position, seeking for a perfect footing.

"C'mon cowboy" she whispered, then took a deep breath and tensed her muscles, lifting Nate up. She could feel painful pressure of his weight on her neck and arms. He was very heavy, in addition his wet arm was slipping out of her fingers. She clenched her teeth, turning with Nate towards the shrubbery. "God is my witness… after we'll be back home… _if_ we'll be back… I will never let you eat those donuts again…" she sighed, pulling her unconscious and wounded husband out of the mud.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, everything belongs to Naghty Dog, Sony and other respective owners.  
I am not an English-speaker, so if there are mistakes, forgive me, I am doing my best to avoid them.

* * *

Moving on several meters to a hiding place behind bushes surrounding the flood waters area with unconscious Nate was a task much more difficult, than she could imagine. Elena had an impression that gravity's level exceeded all acceptable norms, and her husband was literally pulled into the ground. Nate's shoes were sinking in the mud and he kept slipping out of her hands, leaning on his knees. When she finally dragged him behind thicket she knelt over a knocked log and gently lowered Nate on the ground level, shifting him onto his left side.

Elena took a deep breath and rubbed her arms, looking around. They were completely invisible from the outside and could sit here safely, at least for some time. After a while she found a handkerchief in her pockets and sat on the ground next to Nate's head, lifting it gently and placing it on her thigh.

She looked at her husband's battered face, brushing away single strands of wet, dark hair. Though his eyes remained closed, his chest was slowly rising and falling. She was overjoyed that he was still alive, but at the same time she couldn't chase away the grief she felt for him throughout last days. After all it was a sense of matrimonial duty that she ever decided to find him. She didn't forgive him yet, and at that moment she couldn't even imagine herself doing so.

These thoughts didn't took her attention for long, because right then, when she was wiping blood from Nate's face and starting cleaning a wound on his forehead, she felt honest relief.

About fifteen minutes passed when she finally noticed Nate squeezing his eyes and letting out a deep sigh, then turning his head slightly up. He started regaining consciousness. She insured his body as he began to make slightly moves; he looked like if he was waking up from a deep sleep on a Sunday morning after a crazy, all-night party. Eventually he slowly opened his eyes.

They looked at each other. Nate blinked several times, his eyes widened.

"Elena...?" whispered, clearly shocked, with a hoarse voice.

"I'm here" she said, touching his temple and cheek with tips of her fingers. Without removing his head from Elena's thighs Nate shifted fully onto his back, loudly letting the air out from his lungs and looking around.

"Crap... where am I?" he asked hesitantly, touching the earth beneath him with a hand. "I died and by sheer fluke got to paradise...?"

Elena chuckled softly, stopping a gust of laughter.

"Blarneying even with a hole in his head… so I am sure you're all right" she said, smiling. "You are north of the colony. I found you in this state, unconscious... wounded" she wiped one more drop of blood that seeped from the wound. The touch of her fingers reminded him of his injury; he closed his eyes and hissed, violently shaking his head.

"Auu...! Shit, that hurts!"

"Hey, don't move" Elena said firmly, immobilizing his head with a hand. "You hurt yourself horribly. What happened? And where is Sam?"

"Hang on..." Nate sighed, "How the hell did you get there?"

"No," she interrupted, turning a deaf ear to his words, "I'm asking questions now, Nate."

Nate blew his resistance off, then clenched his teeth and rose himself with Elena's help to a sitting position. When he leaned back against the log, Elena observed him closely. His face show the evidence of intense thinking about something, scanning the memory and attempting to reconstruct past events, which his brain registered before losing consciousness. Seconds later his bright blue eyes overflowed with an unspeakable sadness, even anger.

"Nate…" she broke the silence, "What the hell happened?"

They sat for a while next to each other. Elena waited patiently, clasping a blood-stained handkerchief in her hand. Finally Nate lifted his head up and stared blankly ahead.

"He lied to me" he started quietly. "Sam made up the whole story about debt. There was actually no ransom to be paid to Alcazar… I mean the guy, who helped him escape. It turned out that he's been dead from half a year... and Sam has been free for two years now, but he didn't get through to me. He got pulled out of jail by Rafe... one of my former associates..."

As he was speaking, Nate raised his hand to his forehead, but Elena was faster and slapped him on the top his dirty hand.

"Don't touch!" she hissed, then rose from her knees and sat on the log to get better access to Nate's forehead. "I'm not finished yet" said as she leaned towards him, wiping gently his wound. "How did you do this to yourself, anyway?"

"...I fell off the cliff."

"The cliff?!" her eyes popped with surprise and Elena instinctively glanced in its direction, but the forest grew so thick that the cliff was completely undetectable. She remembered, however, how high it was.

"I think I hit... the cliff" Nate said, making a strange move against his face with his hand. "That son of a bitch Rafe was about to shoot me and Sam covered me with his body... probably got hit anyway. I lost my balance and fell... Good God, it hurts like hell..." he hissed, grabbing at his temple.

Elena remained silent, cleansing his wound. She got confused; realized that the sound of one of the two gunshots she had heard in the forest came from the gun aimed straight at her husband. Perhaps a far cry, that she had heard back then, was Nate's...

"Elena..." Nate suddenly began, looking up at her tentatively. "Why are you here? How did you find me? I..." hesitated for a moment, regarding her face carefully, "I thought that you gave up on me."

 _I still didn't make my mind up_ , Elena thought as she watched Nate for a few moments in silence, trying to guess emotions that tormented him. Did he expected that she would move out? Was he considering a divorce? Or maybe he decided to let things happen and try to unscrew everything later? Though Nate's face clearly indicated that he had a huge sense of guilt, she realized that this conversation can't wait any longer.

"Nate" she said firmly. He looked at her with sad and uncertain gaze. Like a kid who messed things up and was aware that he will have to suffer the consequences for his actions.

"We can't live like that anymore. If we are to stay together..." she paused, concentrating on choosing most appropriate words, not wanting to be misunderstood. Right now she couldn't be certain of anything. "…if we are to give ourselves one more _chance_... you can't hide anything from me. You have to tell me everything. Everything that you've been hiding so far."

Nate broke eye contact, looking at the ground again. He swallowed.

"You're sure you wanna know... everything about me?" he asked after a brief moment, toying with his wedding ring and emphasizing the word 'everything'. Elena could feel nervousness and discomfort in his movements, but didn't hesitate for a second. He made her wait way too long, already.

"Everything" she admitted. "And for God's sake, don't you dare omitting any other of your living siblings, cousins or grandparents..."

They both laughed. Elena watched her husband, waiting to hear one of his smart-ass responses, but didn't got any. Instead, Nate leaned back against the log, bending his left leg at the knee. He clenched his left hand hard into a fist and bit his lip, staring absentmindedly into space in front of him.

"Well" he sighed, "If you're sure you want to hear this… but I truly don't know where to begin with..."

"If I were you, I would simply start from the beginning" Elena advised him quietly.

Nate chucked sadly, staring at the ground.

"The _beginning_ , huh…?"

Elena felt both anxiety and excitement in anticipation of what her husband was about to confess. She sensed that she will probably hear something she totally didn't expect.

She wondered whether after hearing all that he was about to tell her, she will still be able to remain by his side as his wife...

"Elena... _Drake_ isn't my real name. I was born as Nathan Morgan."


End file.
